[geomark]

Counterpoint to the respect for educators argument. I live in a country where teachers are highly respected (Thailand), but has among the world's worst education outcomes (as measured by standardized tests like PISA) and steadily declining. The Thai Ministry of Education continues to wring its hands year after year about it, makes various pronouncements, proposes education reforms once in a while, but student performance continues to decline. My conclusion is that respect for educators is important, but there are other much higher impact confounders that nobody seems able to clearly identify.